Wac Arts

Welcome to Wac Arts

Wac Arts offers innovative, inclusive and fun
Performing Arts and Media programmes to
young people aged 5-26. Weekend and evening
enrichment programmes, summer and holiday
projects and a full time professional training
course all held in the Old Town Hall in Belsize Park.

What we do

Wac Arts provides an exciting range of activities
and professional training in the arts for children
and young people. Our programmes offer fun
and engaging creative activities to support
young people to develop a lifelong interest
in performing arts and media.

We also have a range of community and cultural
activities, based at the Old Town Hall in Belsize Park,
available for everyone!

Support Wac Arts

Find out how your donations can help our work with
young people and become a Wac Arts Backer. Or how about
facing your fears and doing something you've always
wanted to do and fundraise for us at the same time?
Find out how you can help make a difference today!

Newtion Matthews – Wac Arts’ Gem on The Voice 2015

Wac Arts students have always made us proud. It is a heart-warming experience for us to watch them grow and display their skills out there. Wac Arts alumni counts names like Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Robo Cop, Secrets & Lies, Without a Trace), 2004 Oscar nominee (Hotel Rwanda) and 2014 Tony Award Winner (A Raisin in the Sun) Sophie Okenedo, Director, Playwright and Offie Nominee Che Walker, world famous jazz musicians Courtney Pine and Julian Joseph and four Mercury and Mobo Award winners including Ms Dynamite and Zoe Rahman. Over the years, it hasn’t got any less exciting for us to witness our students prosper and carve their identity in performing arts and media industry.

Another feather in our cap has been added by Newtion Mathews, a Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre graduate from Wac Arts. Newtion has scored a place in Will.i.am’s team on The Voice, airing on BBC one every Saturday, 7.15 PM. Newton mesmerised the judges with his soulful performance at the blind auditions. As he sang John Legend’s track Who Did That to You, featured in hit movie Django Unchained, Will.i.am and Rita Ore couldn’t resist themselves to tap along.

It hasn’t come easy to Newtion. He left his home at the age of 17 with a dream to make career in music. In an interview Newtion says, “I was homeless for a couple of months actually. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I got into Wac Arts, a charity programme where they encourage young people to pursue their dreams … I got a scholarship to Wac Arts Diploma and it was a wonderful feeling, and the rest is history. It was always going to be music for me for sure.”

The journey has just begun for Newtion Matthews. We wish him all the best and are keeping our fingers crossed for him. We hope he wins the Voice 2015, and sets on to an even brighter future.

Wac Arts Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre is holding auditions for the next term on February 22, 2015. To register or to know more about the programme, email Diploma@WacArts.co.uk or call Steve Medlin at 020 7692 5872. Click here for more information about the Diploma auditions.